Time to play dirty: clay experiment points to future

One man's dream is to put more feet on clay, writes Daniel Ramus.

Australian tennis players can look forward to more success at the French Open with a bold plan to bring European claycourts down under.

Samantha Stosur reached the final of this year's tournament before losing to Italy's Francesca Schiavone, the first Italian female to win a grand-slam singles title.

Player … Terry Rocavert.

Coincidentally, it will be Italy that provides Australia with the materials for the new courts, and it's a man whose most noted tennis feat came on grass who has devised the plan.

Meet Terry Rocavert, the man who so nearly produced the most unimaginable of grasscourt victories against John McEnroe in the round of 64 at Wimbledon in 1980.

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Rocavert's love for the red clay of Europe and the development of young Australian tennis players gave him enough motivation to travel to Europe and bring samples from claycourts back to Australia last November.

The samples were scientifically examined, and Rocavert's efforts appear to have paid off. Tennis Australia has agreed to pay for the building of a pilot Italian-style clay court at Macquarie University.

The court will be the first of its kind in Australia - it will be exactly the same style of court used at the ATP Rome Masters and WTA Italian Open at the Foro Italico arena.

However, due to the harshness of the Australian climate, it will incorporate an underground watering system developed here.

Rocavert, the NSW state coach from 1980 to 1989 who guided the likes of Jason Stoltenberg, Todd Woodbridge, Rachel McQuillan and Rennae Stubbs through their development, explains it as his quest to import an "Italian claycourt tennis culture".

"By importing this culture, my intention is for the court itself to become the teacher," Rocavert told The Sun-Herald. "Players will naturally evolve by playing on clay.

"I think there's some kind of magic in the red court - the red European court.

"When I look at the results from around the world and who does best, and who's done better over the last 30 or 40 years than everywhere else, there seems to be a common denominator - South America and Europe, where red claycourts dominate.

"I wanted to use Italian materials for what the Italians describe as the heart of their tennis court."

Rocavert ventured through the south of France, through Italy and to Rome. He went to different tennis clubs and asked a lot of questions while gathering samples.

"I thought the best way to do that is to go to the source - to where they've been doing it for 150 years, and I'll ask. It's probably the most well-researched claycourt tennis project that there's ever been.''

Rocavert, 55, said European juniors had an instant advantage over Australians because of their claycourt upbringing. "Every match they [European juniors] play is on clay where power isn't everything - so they become human ball machines. Then they try to figure out other ways to win points, and their skill set expands from the word go," he said.

Rocavert praised Tennis Australia for not letting Stosur's success on clay pull the wool over its eyes. "It's tremendous that Tennis Australia is going ahead with this project even though Samantha Stosur has done well on this surface," he said. "This project is about improving the depth of Australian tennis."

Interestingly, Rocavert has revealed for the first time that he suffered an "emotional breakdown" two months before the famous Wimbledon clash with the Superbrat, where he took McEnroe to five sets.

"It was kind of like a panic experience - it happened in an aeroplane. It was a terrible thing, and it still affects me today."

Rocavert was beaten 4-6, 7-5, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3 and conceded that he gave the match to McEnroe. "I just ended up giving it to him. I don't think he lifted his level of play or anything spectacularly. At the crucial moment it was more that my level of play went down," he said.